Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.076 October 13, 1997 1) davenen-dabern? (elye palevsky) 2) food in song (Leo Kanowitz) 3) romanization errors in _The Mendele Review_ v01.020 (Leonard Prager) 4) The etymology of davenen (A. Manaster Ramer) 5) superstitions (Paul Ilie) 6) Bibliography on etymology of Yiddish verbs (A. Manaster Ramer) 7) Mase Binyomin Horevi'i (David Herskovic) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 12:50:50 -0400 (EDT) From: EPalevsky1@aol.com Subject: davenen-dabern? a lib-hober bin ikh ober nit kayn akademiker un keyn lingvist avade un avade nit ober... se kumt mir oys az di verter davenen un dabern kenen zayn farbundn say in klang un aroysreyd say derfar vayl me zogt oykh "zogn" af davenen. elye palevsky 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 08:44:07 -0700 (PDT) From: Leo Kanowitz Subject: food in song Marvin Engel's inquiry about food in song reminds me of a little ditty I used to hear over 65 years ago in the Bronx, chanted by mothers to get their infant children to open their mouths and swallow a spoonful of proferred food. Amol iz geven a mayse Yankele kaynse Epele ber Gildene sher Der sher hot geshoyren kleder Der khasen hot gehesen layzer Di khale hot gehesen rokhele Un [insert name of child as he/she opens mouth wide] hot a groyse lokhele. Whereupon the spoonful of food would be thrust into the opened mouth of the child. Were any of the names in the above those of historical figures, or were they purely an intra-family invention? Leo Kanowitz 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 20:42:30 +0200 From: Leonard Prager Subject: romanization errors in _The Mendele Review_ v01.020 Many thanks to David Herskovic and Perets Mett for pointing out transcription errors in TMR v01020. Please change _maydeney-meylekh_ to _maydaney_meylekh_; _eyzes-ponem_ to _azes-ponem_; and _gdorim_ to _gederim_. An errata and corrigenda list is kept for the _TMR_ and eventually all archived issues will be corrected. If you would like to volunteer to romanize Yiddish texts for the _TMR_ or to proofread issues prior to publication, please contact me. Leonard Prager, Editor _The Mendele Review_ 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 16:16:07 -0400 (EDT) From: manaster@umich.edu Subject: The etymology of davenen I am not sure now how this discussion got started, but I recall my good friend Bob Hoberman posting the list of etymologies that have refuted by the late great (and only rarely wrong) Solomon Birnbaum. His refutation of the Kosover etymology which seeks to trace davenen to MHGerman doenen is compelling. Yiddish would have daynen or deynen, not davenen, if this etymology were correct. Sadly, Kosover's is one of those "etymologies" popular since Antiquity (see Plato's Cratylus) till the rise of comparative linguistics in the early 19th century, namely, one's where as Voltaire said, "Vowels count not at all, and consonants but little". Also, as Birnbaum notes, one must add that Kosover relies on a 15th cent. manuscript in which der khazen do"nt, so this word specifically refers to what a khazen does, i.e., singing or intoning, not the mumbled or silent praying typical of Jewish custom. Now, there IS another etymology, one which Birnbaum did NOT mention, which accounts for all the facts. It traces davenen (originally daven) to the Hebrew root D-B-B, whose primary sense is 'to move the lips'. This etymology accoutns for the menaing, and though the details are baroque and so I will not into them here, for the exact form of the Yiddish word. I might add that the word is attested in one Westerly Yiddish dialect, Dutch Yd, and it isnot clear whether it was indigenous or borrowed from Eastern Yiddish (for the term 'Westerly Yiddish', see my 1997 paper). If the former, then this would probably be an inheritance from Proto-Yiddish. If the latter, I'd be very happy too, since it seems evident to me that Eastern Yiddish and Easterly Yiddish more generally tend to lose the Romance or Germanic words retained in Westerly Yiddish and replace them not merely with Slavic but also with Hebrew ones. So Romance ooren would bne replaced here with a Hebrew word. Now, as to the authorship of this etymology, until yesterday I had for some considerable time labored under the impression that I had come up with it. This is not true, although I suspect that I did work out the formal details. However, the basic idea goes back at least to the late great and indefatigable (and also not-often-wrong-though-not-in-Birnbaum's-class) Florence Guggenheim-Gru"nberg, as I just learned--in time to avoid embarrassing myself by publishing as my own something she had seen two decades earlier than me. A. Manaster Ramer 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 01:48:04 -0800 From: Paul Ilie Subject: superstitions One of the darker sides of yiddishkeit in the past was the superstitious mind. Probably Jews of the generation now in its sixties will recall practices among their elders, brought to America from the Old Country. I don't mean the verbal epithets against the evil eye (pronounced in my family as kin a hora, and that I also heard as kayn ayna hora, but never in the Hebrew pronunciation ayin hara). I refer to things like squeezing the thumb between the fingers tightened into a fist and motioning to the door after a visitor left one's dwelling place. Sometimes both hands were used if the visitor's (usually admiring) words were especially feared. What other practices are we able to, have the courage to, bring to light? Is this an appropriate area? Part of folklore, yet something more. One example that I never understood was a red brick with Hebrew or Yiddish words inscribed on it, perhaps with a name, I'm not sure because the one I saw as a child was unintelligible. It was kept in a closet and my questions about its meaning were peremptorily rejected. A shaynim hartz und danken. Paul Ilie. 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 11:47:38 -0400 (EDT) From: manaster@umich.edu Subject: Bibliography on etymology of Yiddish verbs Dear all, I have collected a number of different proposed theories for the origin of Yiddish verbs like akhlen, paskenen, hargenen, etc., by Birnbaum 1922, 1979, Bin-Nun 1973, Mieses, Beranek 1958, Weinberg 1969, and Beem. If anybody knows of any other work that mentions this topic, esp. anywhere where either Weinreich might have written about it, please let me know. Alexis Manaster Ramer 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 11:38:48 +0100 From: David Herskovic Subject: Mase Binyomin Horevi'i Vayhi bimay binyomin horvi'i, in es iz iz geveyzn in di teyg fin binyomin der ferder, bifroya pro'oys beyisroayl, ven shtrofingen hobn gestroft di yidn, venofal am rov, in es zenn layde gefaln asakh korbones. Bayomim hohaym, in yener tsat iz geveyzn der keynig fin di yidn dem oyvendermanter binyomin in inter zikh hot er gehat, vi zan zayde, binyomin dem dritn, a senderl. Ober er iz geveyn asakh greser fin zan zayde: val zan zayde hot gehat bloyz ayn senderl, inzere binyomin zitst ober in barot zikh mit ongefer tseyn senderlekh. Vayikro binyomin lakhkhomov, in binyomin hot tsamgerifn zane karpen kep in er hot zay gezogt, hovo niskhakmo loy, lomer erfindn a shpitsl, a yidishe drayel, in ayn mol far alemol poter vern diye soynay tsiyen. Vayoymer aylov senderl, in ayner fin di senderlekh hot zikh a krats getin dem kop in zikh ongerifn: 'ikh khayder gedeynk ikh hot men amol gelernt veygn bigsen voseyresh az ven zay hobn gedarft poter vern dem keynig fin persie, hant iz es iran, hobn zay eym gevolt farsamn.' Senderl hot bald gemakht a hekesh az iran zenen muselmeyner in di o reshoim zenen okh muselmeyner in mit deym kopshtik iz er ofgeshpringn az fin danet iz gedringn az men darf farsamn zayre firer dem oysoy hoish. Vayoymri avday hameylekh, in es hot zikh ongerifn imgefreygt ayner fin der keynigs ratgeybers, diye vos men hot getingn az zay zoln shtendig maskim zan, az okh zan rebe hot azoy gelernt phat in posik iz shoyn a gzayre shove az an oykher yisroel is a mitsve tsi farsman. Vayitav hadovor beaynay hameylekh, in deym plan iz epes osergevendlekh gefoln far binyomin hameylekh, in nokh dertsi val er hot gefreygt ale klige menthsen in yeyder hot geshoklt mitn kop. Vayhi mimokhros, in es iz iz geveyn tsimorgents in men hot gerifn nokh a sitsung of tsi bashlisn mi vomi hahoylkhim, vem men zol shikn ostsifirn deym mitsve fin mekhiyes amolayk. Vayokom eykhod min hasenderlekh, in es hot zikh ofgeshtelt a nidrige senderel mit a shtime vi a bas kol, vayoymer, in er hot gezogt, 'shimi no hamoyrim, zats azoy git moyray vraboysay in herts os man idey: 'Toyvo ho'orets me'oyd me'oyd. Indsere land iz gebentsht mit di zibn minim in dertsi flist es nokh mit milekh in honig. Ober nisht dos bin ikh osen val khits fin deym hobn mir okh a mosad. Der mosad iz poshet in prost hakoyl yokhel. Vos hayst? Dos hayst! Az leke mide vos der mosad zol dertsi nisht toygn. Mayentebe ve'ad dameysek asher al sfas hanakhal, fin afrike biz'n vaten ost ofen tsvaytn zat fin di horay arorot tien zay geveltigen. Zay kenn shpaltn dem yam in opshteln der zin on nitamol a nis oder a his. Is memayle az men darf azelekhe shelikhay mitsve mi loni godoyl mi'moysed, iz den farhan greserer tane kames vi inzer moysed? 'Dabayr el benay isroayl, red tsi di rizn in zay zoln ahin forn, aleydign zane hiters, di vayezosos, aveklaygn dem homon alayn, in s'vet zan layhidim hoyso oyro.' Tayre layner, azelkhe yidn ven zay dertsayln diye khidishim in bes medresh bayn gavre legavre makhn zay abisl lakhter di atmosfere, ven zay firn ober klal yisroel iz es a make asher loy ksive basayfer. Ober laynt vater. Vayishalkh binyomin shnayim anoshim meraglim, in binyomin hot geshikt tsvay senderlekh, in vos hayst senderlekh. Ven men zol zay shikn tsim rov mit a hindl shale volt zay der hindl gebisn, in ven men zol zay geybn an esreg of motse simkhes toyre voltn zay gezogt a dank. Azelkhe khitre yingn hot men geshikt of deym vikhtign tsvek. Vayaylkhi vayovoyi, in zay hobn geblonzhet mit a kanadish'n pas, in zenen ongekimn in zay hobn yenem kimat farsamt, s'hot bloyz gefeylt abisl saykhel in s'volt gelongn az binyomin der ferte volt zikh geshosn in di fis; azoy hot er zikh ober geshosn inem kop. Oder efsher farkert. Venahpoykh hi, in der reydl hot zikh iber gedrayt in men hot geshlogn ayn tsefardaya in es is derfin aros nokh a tsfardaya. Az got shlogt nisht mit tsvay shtekenes shlogt ober binyomin mit finef shtekens val az ayn nar farft aran a shtayn kenen tseyn khakhomim es nisht arosnemen, kol shken, kal vokhoymer ben bnoy shel kal vokhoymer ven men handelt mit azone sendelekh.. Di tsvay merglim hobn getin vi di zaydes in zay hobn gehoybn fis. In az es iz nisht do kan bes medresh loyft men in isralitishn consulat. Vayivoda hadovor, in di mase hot geshtinkn of litse letsones. Vahehi akharay hadvorim hoayle, in es iz geveyn nokh diye bizi bizyoynes, vatoymer aylov sara ishtoy, in binyomin's yidene sara hot eym gegeybn a mi shebayrakh: hinay hoayts, di bist dokh a klots val ven di in dane bande voltn gelernt a bisl vater volt ets gezeyn az men hot bigsen'n in seyresh'n gepakt in gehongn. Vayidoym binyomin, tsim ershtn mol in leybn hot zikh binyomin gehaltn dos mol. Moyray veraboysay ven der nar iz nisht inzers voltn mir ale gekent lakhn er is ober inzeres a haymishe in s'iz vat fin a gelekhter. s'iz shoyn efsher take tsat far moshiekh. David Herskovic ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.076 Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html